5 Answers
5

The file is in 0 and 1, but when you open it with text editor those bits are grouped in bytes and then treated as text ;) In Linux you could try to disassemble the output file to ensure that it contains machine instructions (x86 architecture):

While that's true, I think you missed the OP's main confusion. Even if it were bare machine instructions, the OP certainly wouldn't see 0s and 1s when he opens the file in a text editor (which is what he apparently expected).
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sepp2kDec 27 '12 at 20:41